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Is that Jokowi?: Rice sack model mistaken for President
The Agriculture Ministry says the man pictured is in fact a ministry employee, not the President.
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Agriculture Ministry employee Agus Faizal, featured on the logo of Toko Tani Indonesia. (Agriculture Ministry/Courtesy of)
A
picture of an Agriculture Ministry-issued rice sack has gone viral as netizens have mistaken the model pictured on the sack for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Beras Kementan berlogo Jokowi. Dlm keadaan tak melanggar aturan, Jokowi tak laku. Supaya laku, kudu curang dan kerup. pic.twitter.com/bIYINOYPih
— jokoedy (@jokoedy6) September 25, 2018Twitter user @Jokoedy6 posted pictures of the rice sacks, claiming that the man shown carrying a bundle of rice stalks was in fact Jokowi and accused the President of unfairly promoting himself.
“The Agriculture Ministry’s rice has Jokowi as its logo,” he tweeted on Tuesday. “If he doesn’t break the rules, Jokowi cannot win. To win, he needs to cheat and act corruptly.” As of the time of writing, the post had been retweeted 425 times and liked 527 times.
Several other netizens chimed in to criticize what they perceived as Jokowi’s misuse of government facilities.
inilah salah satu tujuan impor beras selama ini, untuk
-memenuhi stok sembako gratis
-membuat beras dengan kemasan khusus pencitraan@RamliRizal @Nurmantyo_Gatot @AkunTofa @fadlizon @Fahrihamzah @haikal_hassan pic.twitter.com/hHodCvKaSW
— Junior || MCA (@BaktiSuci) September 25, 2018
“So, all this time rice imports have been used to fulfill the free sembako [the nine basic commodities] stock and produce rice with special packaging for self-promotion,” Twitter user @BaktiSuci said on Wednesday.
Kasus beras bergambar @jokowi , berlogo @kementan dan bertulisan Toko Tani Indonesia,, juga harus dihukum. Sudah kelewatan kebangetan TidakTauMalu kesewenangan jabatan.
— Suria Ati Kusumah (@ati_suria) September 26, 2018
“[Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman] should be punished for the rice sacks with Jokowi’s picture,” @ati_suria said. “It is over the line, shameless, misuse of authority.”
The ministry, however, says the man pictured is in fact a ministry employee, not the President.
“The model in the photo is Agus Faizal, the driver of the Agriculture Ministry’s procurement bureau head,” ministry spokesperson Kuntoro Boga Andri told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday, adding that the picture had been taken in 2016, when the ministry launched its Toko Tani Indonesia program.
“The rice itself is produced by a farmer’s cooperative under the guidance of the Agriculture Ministry which sells directly to Toko Tani Indonesia to cut the supply chain and provide fair prices to farmers and consumers.”
